My brother and his family, our PLUs, live here:
In a bucolic community:
...in the woods of New Hampshire:
Where there is a village school, a town hall, a fire station, a general store:
...and not much else.
It is birdsong quiet during the day, you can see the Milky Way at night, there are wild turkeys on the sides of the road, and there's a pond around every bend:
There are 18 or fewer children in every classroom, everyone knows everyone else, and when someone is in trouble, the whole town pitches in.
They celebrate Lamson Farm Days in September, the Spring Gala in May, and every Halloween, the entire town gathers on Blood Road for Trick-or-Treating.
It's a place where old is new and history is ancient and tradition is plentiful and nature is everywhere.
Where a quiet country road inspires poetry and an orchard offers a bounty of baked goods.
Where twilight lingers, mist hovers, and rain is always in the forecast:
There are farm stands...
...and roadside nurseries:
...set in dreamlike landscapes like these:
It is idyllic, charming, quaint, and peaceful.
Until early this past Sunday morning, when four teenaged boys broke into a home and stabbed a 42-year-old woman to death in her bed and then attacked her 11-year-old daughter with a machete and left her for dead.
Until four local teenagers decided to burglarize a home vowing to kill anyone who happened to be in the house.
Until four wayward teenagers brutally and senselessly murdered a well-loved nurse, wife, and mother, who leaves behind a traumatized, broken, and survivor-of-a-daughter, and a husband who was away on a business trip at the time.
Until the shattering of Mont Vernon.
If it can happen here, none of us have ever been safe.
I am saddened to read about this and horrified. My heart is heavy. I am praying for the family and families in Mount Vernon. What a tragedy.
Posted by: chriss blagrave | October 08, 2009 at 01:13 AM
How very frightening. This story brought tears to my eyes. This is so senseless and so very sad. A husband loses a wife, a daughter loses a mother, and as the townspeople asked........"Why". Sometimes, there are no answers!
Posted by: jo | October 08, 2009 at 09:03 AM
This saddens me beyond belief!! My thoughts and prayers are with this family and the entire town of Mont Vernon!
Posted by: Jody | October 08, 2009 at 08:10 PM
OMG, Cath, you caught me totally off guard....I heard just the tail end of the story on the news last night so I didn't know where it had happened. I live on the MA/NH border so not soooo far away; God bless that little girl and her dad. You just never know.
Posted by: Kathyc on SCS | October 08, 2009 at 08:16 PM
Thanks for bringing this to my attention; I didn't see anything about it in our local paper here in Utah. Hard to believe this is true; this poor community and family. Prayers to all of them.
Posted by: Kathy W | October 12, 2009 at 10:56 AM